Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook

On the evening of Thursday 28 April 2022 RSC Belgium hosted a webinar talk from Andrei Goicea, Policy Director with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry. The title of Andrei's presentation was 'Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook'.

Andrei talked about FORATOM and the status of nuclear energy at EU level. He outlined the benefits of nuclear energy and its future at EU level including new developments, such as the European Green Deal that will impact on the nuclear sector.

He looked at the potential of nuclear for sustainable hydrogen production and its role in European industrial strategy. Other topics included that were covered included security of energy supply, energy pricing and the potential of small modular reactors (SMRs).

The nuclear energy sector currently includes a fleet of over 100 reactors in the EU that supports over 1 million jobs and produces around 25% of the EU's electricity – the highest single source of electricity. Andrei highlighted that nuclear is an option for decarbonization and that few EU nations will achieve the 2030 carbon emissions targets with their current mix of power production. The exceptions being nations like France and Sweden with higher contributions of nuclear power.

In terms of its potential for hydrogen production, the characteristics of nuclear power production are well suited to running electrolysers at greater capacity than other low-carbon options, so so-called 'pink hydrogen' ('green hydrogen' is defined as hydrogen generated by renewable power - solar, wind etc) has better economics.

The very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. You can download Andrei's presentation here and a recording of the webinar can be viewed below or via our RSC Belgium YouTube channel.

About the speaker

Andrei Goicea graduated in 2002 from both the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering as a nuclear engineer and the “Spiru Haret” University, Marketing and Foreign Trade Faculty as an economist. He also holds a masters degree from the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering in nuclear safety and radiological protection from 2003.

He started work with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry - in May 2015 and is currently Policy Director. He previously worked at Nuclearelectrica in Romania (2003 – 2013) and on the Mochovce Units 3 and 4 Project in Slovakia (2013-2015).

Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource

On the evening of Thursday 31 March 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends enjoyed a highly informative talk on 'Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource' with Henk Pool from Cefic – the European Chemical Industries Association.

“Every year, Europeans generate 25 million tonnes of plastic waste, but less than 30% is collected for recycling” states the 2018 European Plastics Strategy. Henk showed us how EU regulation and chemical innovation is ensuring that recycling and reuse can minimise waste and build a circular economy for plastics in Europe.

EU initiatives

The EU Green Deal is at the heart of the EU’s ambitions of becoming a climate-neutral continent. To meet these ambitious European objectives, much more plastic waste needs to be collected, sorted and prepared for recycling and a broader range of markets need to be supplied with plastic products containing recycled content.

The European ambition to transition from a linear economy towards a sustainable circular economy calls for an array of complementary innovative recycling solutions and business models. Chemical recycling enables the production of chemicals including plastics from End-of-Life plastic waste streams that are currently incinerated, placed in landfill or exported.

Over the last decades, recycling of plastics has been mostly limited to plastic waste streams which were relatively easy to collect and recycle through mechanical recycling. For packaging this led to overall plastic recycling rate of 41%. Yet still today, a large part of plastic waste ends up in landfill or incineration.

Chemical innovation

To further increase plastic recycling, other and complementary recycling routes will be required to process plastics that are difficult to be handled in mechanical recycling processes. Chemical recycling can therefore fill a void in the plastics recycling loop, conserve valuable resources, and contribute to the creation of a low-carbon circular economy.

Chemical recycling technologies allow the use of plastic waste as feedstock for the chemical industry and replace fossil feedstock materials to produce new chemicals including plastics. Chemical recycling can upgrade the quality and produce secondary feedstock materials that are equivalent to virgin resources. Chemical recycling also has the potential to remove undesired additives and impurities allowing the use as recycled content in high-demanding applications such as food contact materials or medical applications.

During the webinar Henk clarified the different recycling options and routes for plastic waste; took us through the EU policy framework and its developments; and discussed the progress made and the need for further collaboration in technology development, value chain – market developments, and policy development to hit the EU’s ambitious targets.

More information

You can access the slides that Henk presented here and much more information on initiatives in this area can be found on Cefic’s Chemical Recycling Website.